Union offer to suspend Southern rail strike

We all know that everything concerning Southern Rail is a complete mess at the moment, and the latest strike wasn't filling passengers with any hope.

There's a glimmer of brightness though, as the five-day strike could be suspended on Thursday and Friday. That's if Southern agree to new talks, without pre-conditions, say the RMT union.

That's good isn't it?

Not quite - see, Southern Rail have said that they're not prepared to talk to the union, unless they were willing to go through an eight-point plan, which was rejected last Friday.

So, Southern Rail passengers are still looking at 946 which have been cancelled. Some of those passengers have planned to have their own say on the matter, with a protest outside the Department for Transport (DfT) in central London.

The Campaign for Better Transport and the Association of British Commuters want passengers to join a march from London Victoria from 17:30 BST, tonight (1oth August 2016).

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "The company knows that prescriptive pre-conditions would not allow genuine talks to take place."

"In an effort to break the deadlock and get the talks process moving, RMT is prepared to suspend strike action set for Thursday and Friday if Southern agree to urgent talks without pre-conditions. The ball is now in their court."

A Southern spokesperson said: "We have made the RMT a fair and comprehensive eight-point offer and we'll meet them any time, any place, anywhere to talk about our offer on our network to settle this dispute."